Ah, Independence Day. With seven decades of freedom, it’s a great time to reflect on the progress we’ve made as a country and people and what’s yet to be accomplished.

Or if you are more commercially inclined, a great time to go shopping and buy the large TV or other object of desire, now available at a ‘never before’ price.

At Brand Equity, we chose to look back on some of the iconic films that evoked the patriotic spirit in the Doordarshan era, and a few others which gunned for the same effect made more recently. Blame it on nostalgia if you will, but our sympathies are more towards the older, more innocent pieces of work and yet it’s impossible to deny the emotional heft of some of the more contemporary pieces.

Do let us know which ones you like best and the ones you believe should’ve made it either in the comments below or on Twitter @ETBrandEquity #IndependenceDayPlaylist

Happy Independence Day, dear readers!

Tree of Unity

While not as obvious as many of the other films here, Tree of Unity, made all the way back in 1972 is a simple but effective film. It packs in themes of unity, eco-friendliness and the importance of overlooking our differences and getting along, messages we could use even today. And all this without a discernible word spoken, perhaps a conscious strategy considering the linguistic diversity of the country.

Ek Anek Aur Ekta

The Films Division of India decided to make children understand concepts that were otherwise difficult to grasp or a little too pedantic and dull. Ek Anek Aur Ekta went on to acquire truly iconic status. The intention of the film was simple, yet hard hitting. ‘Unity in Diversity’ was the message, with a song that kids could sing along to. The film was directed by Vijaya Mulay. The film's design, animation and creation were done by Bhimsain Khurana, and Sadhna Sargam sung the song. Kids from the 70s and 80s who grew up on this song during the breaks between shows on DD have given it a successful second life online.

The Freedom Torch

Suresh Mullick, who led the creative renaissance at Ogilvy & Mather India, was the man behind the Freedom Torch song. This famous video from the 80s featured Indian athletes running with a flaming torch in their hands, and was the first of the trilogy of patriotic films released by DD. Mullick collaborated with filmmaker Kailash Surendranath to make this spot.

Mile Sur Mera Tumhara

Following the success of the Freedom Torch, Mullick and Surendranath came together again for Mile Sur Mera Tumhara. The iconic song was written by Piyush Pandey, composed by Ashok Patki and arranged by Louis Banks. The video highlighted India's different linguistic communities and societies, featuring people from all walks of life, from musicians, sports persons, movie stars and others.

Desh Raag

While not as popular as its two predecessors, Mullick again managed to assemble a stellar ensemble of Indian classical music and dance talent. Speaking of the film, Prasoon Joshi, chairman, McCann Worldgroup - Asia Pacific, who was at O&M at the time, and a protege of Mullick says, "Desh Raag came after Mile Sur and was shot in a very similar way. The unique idea in Mile Sur was the connect that Raag Bhairavi had everywhere in the country. Here, he'd thought of a twist where the Raag which is actually Des was pronounced as Desh. But it was quite nuanced and besides, the idea of trying find a similar melody was already done. People didn’t get that nuance." It's a great personal favourite with Joshi and several other musically inclined people in and out of advertising and lives on as one of the few places outside of rare concerts (which are almost never recorded) where you can see so many of India’s greatest talents together in one place.

While being briefed on an ad film for DDB Mudra, creative chief Bobby Pawar happened to mention this other idea he had to filmmaker Amit Sharma. According to Sharma he lost all interest in the ad film and went about creating this other film instead — the national anthem rendered entirely in sign language by mute children. He says, “We went to 12 schools in and around Mumbai and convinced them. The teachers were fantastic; one of them lip-reads when you talk.” Before the shoot, Sharma did a 10 day workshop with the children and then assembled 500 of them at Don Bosco, Mumbai. He recalls, “It was so amazing shooting with them; they were much better than normal kids. I’d used the same location four months before to shoot kids in one line and it was horrible. It was only when we announced it was a wrap, that the enormity of what we’d done struck me. We'd got gifts for these kids and my son who was a year and half then, was distributing them. Once the kids knew the shooting was over, they wanted to touch my hand and say hello. I almost cried.”